1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid container adaptable for storing a liquid such as cosmetic nail polish, correction fluid and so on and designed to have on its tip portion an application tip body for the application of the liquid.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is described a liquid container of this type in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-57771 which comprises: an elastic tank portion for receiving a liquid, a liquid-supplying member disposed axially slidably within the tank, and a pump space portion formed between the liquid-supplying member and the tank portion whose pumping function to discharge the above liquid is actuated by the advancement of the liquid-supplying member. The liquid-supplying member comprises a pump shelf portion whose outside diameter is the same as the inside diameter of a pump internal wall of the pump space portion formed within the tank portion. When the elastic tank portion is shrinked so that the liquid-supplying member will move forward, the pump shelf portion of the liquid-supplying member moves on the pump internal wall of the pump space portion, as a result, almost all the liquid in the pump space portion is supplied from the pump space to the outside by the pumping function.
However, such a conventional art liquid container has a problem such that, when the rear end portion of the tank portion is pressed by mistake, causing the tank portion to be shrinked, the liquid may spring out unexpectedly undesirably to the outside. If a cap is not provided on the tip of the liquid container, the surrounding will be soiled, and even if a cap is provided, the liquid having spread may be solidified within the cap, which may cause a problem that the cap becomes hard to take off.
The liquid container described in the above publication is designed in such a manner that clearance is made axially between the pump shelf portion and the pump internal wall when the tank portion is not shrinked, and as long as the pump shelf portion moves within the clearance, the liquid does not spring out ahead of the tip portion of the container. However, a small clearance is not very effective, and too large a clearance may cause a problem that, when the liquid-supplying member moves axially within the tank portion, undesirable radial movement becomes bigger, which leads to collision of the pump shelf portion with an edge of the pump internal wall.
Further, since the tank portion is formed integrally with the bellows-shaped elastic portion, it should have both rigidity which is required for storing liquid and flexibility which is required for easy handling thereof, consequently the tank portion becomes difficult to manufacture.